Assured Guaranty Hires William O’Keefe to head Municipal Dealer Relations

Assured Guaranty Ltd. ("Assured Guaranty”) (NYSE:AGO), the holding company for direct bond insurers Assured Guaranty Corp. ("AGC”) and Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp. ("AGM”), announced today that William B. O’Keefe will join AGC and AGM as Senior Managing Director, Municipal Marketing. He reports directly to Séan W. McCarthy, Chief Operating Officer of Assured Guaranty.

In his new role, Mr. O’Keefe will primarily focus on maintaining and expanding the direct bond insurance companies’ working relationships with municipal sales, trading and syndication desks. He will also lead AGC’s and AGM’s retail marketing and electronic platform strategy.

"We’re all looking forward to working with Bill, who adds significant experience and talent to our organization,” said Mr. McCarthy. "As we further build the market leadership of our two bond insurance platforms – AGM, the municipal-only insurer, and AGC, the diversified provider -- we are committed to providing issuers and investors with the most creative and responsive service in our industry. Bill is uniquely qualified to help us achieve that goal.”

Mr. O’Keefe said: "I am very excited about this opportunity. I believe that Assured Guaranty is a great company and that this position is a perfect fit for me.”

Mr. O’Keefe brings 20 years of experience as Managing Director of Morgan Stanley’s Municipal Bond Department, where his leadership played a key role in that firm’s growth in the public finance and municipal bond markets. Notably, he has served on the Board of the Municipal Securities Rule Making Board, is a past chairman of the Bond Market Association’s Municipal Securities Division and a founding member of MuniCenter, an electronic trading platform for municipal bonds, in which Assured Guaranty is an investor.

He graduated from St. Michael’s College in Winooski, Vermont with B.A. degree.

Assured Guaranty Ltd. is a publicly-traded Bermuda-based holding company. Its operating subsidiaries provide credit enhancement products to the U.S. and international public finance, infrastructure and structured finance markets. More information on the Assured Guaranty family of companies can be found at www.assuredguaranty.com.